Seraphim
by iridescentwings
Summary: Sequel to Shadow of Darkness. When Machine Faction members start getting mysteriously injured even dying on the job, Rikku is sent to investigate. But is what she finds more than she can handle?
1. Chapter 1

Seraphim

AN: Welcome to the sequel to Shadow of Darkness! To returning readers, welcome back! I hope you enjoy this as much as SoD. To new readers, welcome! While I don't think it is necessary to read Shadow of Darkness I can't guarantee I won't make reference to the first story.

Disclaimer: I will only say it once for this story. I own nothing of Final Fantasy, Square-Enix, etc…The plot is mine, the Seraphim is mine, and any unrecognizable characters are- you guessed it- mine!

**Chapter 1:**

One month. It had been one month, down to the hour, since Rikku began working as Machine Faction Leader Gippal's secretary. She sighed, pulling her thick blond hair into a long ponytail. 'Secretary?' she thought. 'Ha! Jack-of-all-trades is what he should've called it.' She had been secretary of course. But then there was also mediator, mechanic, nurse- though she had no mediating or nursing skills to even speak of. It could not have been a more difficult job if Gippal had planned it that way. She paused mid-brush stroke. Maybe he had planned it that way. It certainly would be just like him. She shook her head.

"You're just stressed," she told herself. After all, he wouldn't dare do that to her, right? Right?

She gave her hair one final pat and headed out of the room she rented, crossed the temple grounds, and entered Machine Faction Headquarters.

"Hey, your highness!" a familiar voice shouted as she entered the ex-Djose Temple's main chamber. "Give me a hand with this, will you?"

She glanced in the direction the voice came from. Gippal was locked in stalemate combat with a bulky sentry drone. Rolling her eyes in amusement, she trotted over to him and clocked the machine over the head with her fist. It made a squawking noise and sank to the ground, sparking unpleasantly. "Too tough for you to handle?" She smirked.

Gippal grabbed a towel and wiped the grease from his hands. "Hell yes, when it creeps up on a guy like it did. Stupid thing mistook me for a fiend." He scowled menacingly at it.

Rikku snickered.

"Hey, this is your boss you're laughing at."

"Er… right." She grinned, still quite entertained.

He prodded the drone carefully, glaring suspiciously at it. "Well then, since you're so brilliant when it comes to the clockworks on these things, you can straighten out its little 'identity problem'."

"What!"

"You heard me."

She sighed tragically. "When are you going to get more help around here?" She glanced around the chamber, noting how few workers there were.

"Uh, when people get over the fact that nearly the entire Faction was murdered on these grounds not too long ago," was Gippal's gruff reply. He tossed the stained towel over his shoulder. "I've got a conference call for the next hour. Now get to work."

She made a face when the greasy towel hit her. "Oh honestly," she muttered under her breath.

She pulled a pair of goggles out of the hip pocket of the standard Al Bhed jumpsuit she wore- on Gippal's insistence. He wasn't too pleased with all the staring (and less working) she was attracting in her usual attire. She donned the goggles and seized a simple wrench from the toolbox Gippal left behind. "Okay buster, prepare to meet your doom!"

It took just over an hour for Rikku to dismantle the machine, figure out what was wrong, repair the damages, and reassemble it, and by the time she had finished, Gippal had three more lined up, waiting for repairs. It wasn't so bad. In fact, she was sort of having fun. It was far more interesting than office work.

"When you're done with this, I have some paperwork that needs to be filed," Gippal said after inspecting the first drone.

She pushed her goggles up. "And?" she prompted, certain there was more.

"And… nothing. For now." He started to cross the room, leaving her quite stunned. "Oh." He paused. "And keep your lunch break open."

A pair of needle-nose pliers fell from her hands. "My… ehh?" Did he just say…?

He glanced at her and smirked. "You will join me for lunch, won't you?"

She felt her face grow terribly hot. Hastily, she turned away. "Eh… whatever. Yeah… sure. Why not?" she squeaked.

"Good." His voice carried the tone of humor.

A minute later she heard the sound of a door clicking shut. Gippal had returned to his office. Now Rikku could comfortably freak out. She sank fully to the ground with a startled gasp. Gippal… and her… and lunch… Did this qualify as a… She gulped. But he was joking right? He had to be, right? She took a deep breath. 'Calm down. Colleagues eat together. He just wants to talk shop,' she told herself.

'Alone?' a small part of her asked.

"Oh be quiet!"

The sounds of tinkering that had echoed around the Temple stopped. Everyone stared at Rikku. She gave a nervous giggle and sank further behind the dormant machines. "Ooh boy," she muttered under her breath. "I really have been stressed lately."

Yanking her goggles back into place, she seized her tools and attacked the next drone with a vengeance.

…..

Lunch had arrived. Rikku found herself in an oddly built café, staring over a steaming bowl of the soup du jour at Gippal… and Nhadala. Part of her was extremely irritated. Another part of her was irritated that she was irritated in the first place! He really did want to talk shop. With Nhadala as well, it seemed.

"Three this week?" Gippal was saying, quite seriously.

"Three what?" Rikku asked blankly, glancing between the two of them. She had been lost in a daydream of Gippal choking on his sandwich.

"Casualties. Casualties, Rikku." Gippal looked faintly annoyed.

"Casualties?"

Nhadala nodded. "Two diggers were seriously wounded. One is dead."

"From what?"

Gippal clucked his tongue. "Weren't you listening? Nhadala didn't invite you here for decoration you know."

"Nhadala?"

"What?" The woman glanced at her, puzzled.

Rikku gritted her teeth. "Nothing." He wasn't even the one who invited her! Her nostrils flared. How dare he? Raise her hopes- she stopped her thoughts right there. Then she caught him staring at her. She blushed and took a deep breath. "Sorry. Haven't slept well lately. Been busy, you know…" She stabbed vehemently at a noodle in her soup.

"Uh huh…" Gippal arched a brow.

Nhadala simply looked at her knowingly. Rikku returned the look with a glare, indirectly telling her 'It's not what you think.'

Gippal glanced between the two women. "Right. Anyway. Rikku, we want you to oversee the investigation."

"Investigation? Where?"

He snorted, exasperated. "Where? Where!" he sputtered. "The Northeast Expanse of the freaking Sanubia Desert! Big yellow hot place covered in sand? The one on Bikanel Island, remember? What we were talking about. Have you totally ignored everything we've said today?"

She huffed loudly. "Don't yell at me!"

"I'm your boss, dammit! When you're not doing your job, what am I supposed to do? Give you a raise?"

"Well excuse me! I thought my lunch break was just that! A break! From work! Get it?" She shoved her seat back, stood, and swung her knapsack over her shoulder, giving him a satisfying smack over the head with it as she did. She harrumphed loudly. "Well, Nhadala. Nice seeing you. Now, if you'll excuse me." She whirled on her heel and stalked out of the café.

"Oh, I think that went wonderfully, don't you, boss?" Nhadala asked with a touch of amusement in her voice.

…..

Rikku stalked down the path connecting the Moonflow to Djose Temple grumbling under her breath. At first, she was angry- angry at him for tricking her about the lunch break; angry at herself for assuming that it wasn't strictly business; angry at him for yelling at her- though part of her admitted he had every right to do so. But as she drew closer to the Temple, she became increasingly more embarrassed. She had assumed that Gippal was asking her to lunch for… well… lunch's sake. She was appalled when she realized part of her- a small part, she insisted- wanted it to be true. And here she went and made a fool of herself when she realized Gippal really did only mean business. She felt her face grow hot with shame.

'I really have been stressed…'

She entered the Temple without realizing it and waved distractedly at the Al Bhed, on lunch breaks as well, who greeted her. Pulling a key from the neckline of her jumpsuit, she entered Gippal's office. There were three spheres on his desk requesting appointments with the Machine Faction's youthful leader. Well, it was something to do. With a sigh, she sat down at her own cluttered little desk, pulled out Gippal's appointment book, and set to scheduling. This was usually the part of the job she hated- sitting still, doing nothing but office work for perhaps hours at a time- but this time she welcomed it. The monotony would calm her down. Maybe.

It did. Half an hour later, when Gippal returned, she was quite calm. For Rikku. She was startled out of a reverie when he shouted her name.

"Finally," he muttered when she glanced at him. "I suppose you didn't hear a word I said?"

"Eh heh heh… sorry."

He rolled his eyes. "Rikku, Rikku. You've become so incompetent. What should I do with you?"

"Fire me, I guess."

"I could. I should."

She sighed. "Just get on with it, pinhead."

"Hey, watch it. I control your pay."

"Yes, yes, I know." She took a deep breath and smiled sweetly. "What is it, sir?"

"That's frightening…" he muttered. Sitting down, he told her of the situation in the Sanubia Desert. Two weeks after the Northeast Expanse of the desert was opened for excavation, strange things began to happen to those who chose to dig there.

"Four deaths and over a dozen injuries- most of them serious- and no one can explain what is going on down there. Now isn't that odd?" Gippal was pacing now, waving his hands now and again to emphasize a point. "All they can remember is- is feathers. And I doubt the chocobos are rabid.

"Naturally, this has become a major setback. First, few of our remaining diggers want to even think about that part of the desert, let alone dig there. And second, recruits are becoming less and less owing to the fact that they somehow got the notion they are going to die." He kicked the wall and continued pacing. "Don't know where they got that idea from," he muttered.

Rikku arched a brow. "Then why are we still digging there? If it's so dangerous?" Abandoning the area seemed to be the most obvious solution to her.

Gippal stared at her as though she'd grown a nose in the middle of her forehead. He even stopped pacing for a moment. "Why? Why?"

"This repeating thing is getting old."

He ignored her. "Because we're trying to learn as much as we can! There are so many mysteries to these 'machines'. Look at how much we've already learned through previous excavations!"

"But-"

"But nothing! There is a world to learn beneath that sand." His face lit up like a boy who just got the newest, greatest toy. "There is something incredible in that sand," he said breathlessly. "Something worth all of this effort, I just know it."

"But Gippal… how do you know? People are dying."

"I feel it. Call it intuition."

"Intuition?" Rikku repeated skeptically. This was a lot of work – and danger! - to base off intuition.

"Yeah. Gut feeling. A hunch." He smirked suddenly. "Maybe you've never experienced it."

She rolled her eyes. Men. "So, why are you telling me this? Oh, by the way, Nooj wants you to okay an upgrade to his sentry drones," she pointed out, glancing at his appointment book.

"Again?" Gippal sighed. "I told him I'd do it when I could. He knows I'm swamped." He shook his head. "Anyway, I'm telling you all of this because I want to you investigate the situation."

"Me? Are you nuts? I'm not a detective! And I don't want to- to die!"

He tilted his head, watching her. "Are you saying- are you saying that you don't want to know what's going on down there? Not interested in the slightest bit?"

She opened her mouth to protest and then snapped it shut. He was appealing to her curious nature. And, damn, it was working. Of course she wanted to know! People didn't normally get injured from feathers!

"Why me?" she whined, though both knew she had been defeated. She was going.

"Because you're… you. You have a weird way of looking at things. You won't overlook something I might." Though he was appealing to her vanity as well, he looked triumphant.

"Is that supposed to be a compliment?"

"Nice, eh?" He chuckled. "Besides," he seized his appointment book from her hands and pointed to it, "as you know, I'm busy for the next several days and won't be able to look into it myself."

Rikku stared at him for a long time. Finally, she sighed. "All right. When do I go?"

Gippal grinned gleefully. "We head out tomorrow morning, first thing."

"Okay." That was doable. She could pack later that evening and- wait a minute. "We? What do you mean we?"

He laughed, looking quite pleased with himself. "I have a lot of work to do at Bikanel too. Which means you and I can spend a whole mess of time together."

"Are you serious?" she protested.

"Oh, the lady doth protest?"

She scowled. "Gippal, you do this on purpose, don't you?"

"Mostly," he admitted baldly.

She made a startled squeak.

"Oh, and uh, Nhadala wanted me to tell you to get over your denial."

Rikku's cheeks flared red. "What? Denial! What is she thinking? I'm not in denial!"

…..

By the time Gippal and Rikku reached Bikanel Island, they weren't speaking to one another. It had happened an hour prior to their arrival, the incident that led to this smoldering silence.

Gippal had put his new airship, the Guardian Avenger (named, apparently, as a vow to get revenge on Barthello for destroying his previous ship), on autopilot so he could take a quick break in the bathroom. He and Rikku had crossed paths when the airship hit unexpected turbulence. The airship bucked violently. They stumbled. Gippal's hands flew out to grab the nearest thing to stabilize himself- that happened to be Rikku. The convenient placement of his hands led to a well-aimed blow to his head and a furious argument where he pleaded an innocent accident and she screamed guilty as charged. They only quieted down the last fifteen minutes of the journey when Rikku chose to ignore anything more that Gippal said. Which was just fine by him because he was tired of apologizing to her anyway.

Nhadala was there to greet them when they disembarked. "Hey guys, you're right… on time." She glanced curiously between the two. "Okay, what's wrong?" The tension between Gippal and Rikku was raging.

"Nothing. Except she is overreacting, as usual!"

"I am not!"

"You are so! It was an accident!"

"Accident? You grabbed my chest! How is that an accident?"

"Because it was!"

Behind them, Nhadala began to snicker. This was what one got when a teenaged boy was the leader of an organization such as the Machine Faction, no matter how mature he could be. The two teens stopped bickering and stared at her. Hastily, she shook her head. "Nothing, nothing. Rikku, there is a hover and an investigation team ready for you in the Vencd Section of the camp. The pilot will take you to the site. Gippal, there has been some concern among the diggers that I think you need to address…" They disappeared into a stout office tent.

With a sigh, Rikku headed in the direction Nhadala had instructed. Finally, she had some time away from that one-eyed, nattering blond moron- Gippal, naturally. She glanced around the familiar worksite as she trudged through the hot sand. It was a lot more subdued than usual.

'Well of course. People are dying and stuff, after all. They get scared and a lot of them leave. And,' she had to admit to herself, 'if I was normal, I'd be leaving too…' But Rikku had a curious nature that would not allow her to rest until she found out what was causing this unsettling series of events.

"Rao Rikku! Kuhhy bycc fedruid y rammu :Hey Rikku! Gonna pass without a hello?"

She glanced over her shoulder with a start and saw that she had just passed the pilot. "Oh, sorry Zanno." She laughed slightly, backtracking. "I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing."

"No surprise there," he teased.

"Hey!" She nudged his shoulder lightly. "What's up?"

He shrugged. "Heard you got promoted to Gippal's lackey."

"Yeah. Unfortunately. I think it's punishment for something I did in another life."

Zanno laughed. "So, you're heading…?"

"To the Northeast Territory."

His smile vanished. "You serious?" he asked worriedly.

She frowned as well. "Of course. That's why I'm here."

He shook his head. "Didn't know that you were going to head the investigation… Don't you know how dangerous that place is?"

Rikku lifted her chin boldly. "Yeah well… I'm not scared!" She climbed onto the hover and her search team did the same. "Come on, we've got an investigation to do!"

Zanno muttered under his breath about a bad feeling, but climbed in next to her. With the roar of an engine, they were off.


	2. Chapter 2

Seraphim

AN: I apologize for the lateness of this chapter. I rewrote it about 2 times and I'm still not sure I'm satisfied with it. But! I hope you enjoy it! Thank you for your patience!

**Chapter 2:**

The Northeast Expanse of the Sanubia Desert was the same as any other bit of desert Rikku had ever been to- dry, gritty, sandy, and so very hot. In fact, she wasn't so certain that she hadn't been through this area before. Still, she would check it out. The desert was always full of surprises.

Nimbly, she hopped down from the hover and glanced around. It was eerie in that place. She shivered, despite the heat. Where she expected the noise of hovers, chatting diggers, and the mouthy hovering drone that reminded everyone to keep hydrated, she got … utter silence. There were signs that the diggers had been there, hollows in the sand that had yet to be covered by shifting winds, tools, and … blood. Great splashes of blood, dark with age.

Rikku crouched near the expansive hollow at her feet. The blood was most abundant there. "Is this where it started?"

Zanno nodded, crouching next to her. "The majority of it happened to the diggers in this hollow. But some accidents have happened there. There, too." He pointed off in the distance. Blood marked the spots he mentioned. "Listen, Rikku… are you sure you want to go through with this?"

She gazed thoughtfully at the hollows. "I don't think I'll be allowed to rest until I figure it out."

"Huh?"

She glanced at him, smirking. "Gippal will be on my case if I run away." And then he would tease her relentlessly.

"Can't have that, now can we?"

She shrugged. "He's… counting on me."

Zanno blinked in surprise. "You're actually serious, aren't you?"

"Don't say it like you're so surprised!"

"Er, sorry."

She smiled. She turned in the direction of the hover and, inserting two fingers in her mouth, she gave a sharp whistle. "Come on everyone! We've got digging to do!" she shouted to her investigation team. They piled out of the hover. Turning, she trudged into the excavation site with her team on her heels.

Rikku looked around briefly before directing the others to dig in areas where blood concentration was high. Then she stood back, watching for a while. If she was a deadly mystery, where would she hide, she wondered. Some of the most difficult things to find were often the ones most obvious to see. But she didn't see anything. Nothing but sand and blood. With a sigh, she plopped down near an unattended splash of blood. 'I suppose this is as good a place as any to begin.'

Carefully, she began to sift through the sand. An hour had passed. Her muscles were beginning to ache and her knees hurt from being crouched down so long- and she was so thirsty!- and she was about to give up. She'd found nothing. And there was nothing she hated more than finding nothing, except maybe wasting time. Which she felt like she had done a great deal. She dumped a handful of sand behind her and then paused at the uncharacteristic thump of something heavy falling into the sand. She glanced back and saw a large chunk, about the size of her palm, of gray something half buried in the pile of sand she had created. Gingerly, she picked up the chunk and examined it closely. Though encrusted with grime and sand, its surface cast a watery appearance similar to…

"A sphere!" Rikku murmured. Excitement coursed through her. That was exactly what she held- the broken piece of a sphere. "Guys! I think I'm onto something!"

Within seconds, her team had clustered around her, examining the sphere fragment in turn.

"This is just a sphere," a man named Hao pointed out.

"Yeah. I know. Look, this could be… a movie sphere. Or something. It might tell us what's happening here."

"Or it might not," someone else muttered in the back. She thought she heard the same voice snickering that it might be a porno that belonged to one of the diggers. How immature!

"Are you sure this isn't just a reaction from your sphere hunting days?" a woman named Tira asked.

She narrowed her eyes. Were they questioning her? She was insulted. "Look, this very well could be the answer we're looking for!"

"Or it could be a dud," someone in the back muttered.

"Listen, I'm the head of this, you know!" she said severely. "Now, we're going to find the rest of this sphere whether you guys like it or not! So shove your complaints or I'll shove 'em for you, got it!"

She received a collective grumbling 'yes' and everyone returned to their digging locations. With a frown, she watched them continue. Perhaps they were right. Maybe she thought the sphere was important simply because she'd been a sphere hunter. But that sphere was the only significant find any of them had made.

She scowled slightly. And it wasn't a good sign for her leadership abilities that they questioned her judgment. They treated her like some silly little girl! 'At least I found something! Unlike the rest of them.'

However, despite the fact that they continued to dig for several more hours, they only found one other fragment of the sphere. Rikku was very disappointed. And by that time, Zanno was insisting that they call it a day or dehydration would claim them all. With a sigh of defeat, she agreed.

The return trip to the camp was quiet. Her team was either dozing or gulping down water. Rikku herself was distracted. She wanted to know what was on that sphere! And pieces wouldn't tell her! Her thoughts wandered to the fragments, carefully stored in two separate compartments in her knapsack. She knew what she would be doing that evening.

Gippal was waiting for her when the hover pulled into camp. Rikku gave him a puzzled glance as she hopped down. "What are you doing here?" she asked, absently waving goodbye to her team. She crossed the sand to meet him. "I thought you were going to be busy all day." Her excitement over finding the sphere fragments muted any frustration she'd had with him.

Apparently, he had calmed down too. "I was. I am, I mean. I insisted on a five-minute break when I heard you were returning to camp. And to be frank, I was getting sick of all the politics." He did look faintly annoyed. His good eye searched her face. "So? Your expression tells me you found something."

"Oh, right." She pulled the sphere fragments from her knapsack and explained her theory. Gippal listened intently- quite professional of him, actually, which surprised her- and nodded in all the right places. "I just know it's important." She smirked. ""I guess it's my turn for intuition."

Gippal rolled his eyes, but smiled anyway.

Rikku's amusement quickly faded, replaced with irritation. "But some of my so-called team think I'm making too much of this. That I'm overreacting because I was a sphere hunter." She peeked at him out of the corner of her eye. Perhaps he thought she was overreacting as well? What would she do then? 'Beat my reasoning into him, I guess.'

He simply frowned. "Okay. Don't worry, I'll take care of that." He dropped a hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "This is great. I knew I could count on Cid's girl to pull it off." He gave her a lopsided grin that made her insides quake like jelly. "And…" he sighed. "I have to return to that meeting. Can you continue with the investigation tomorrow?"

"Um… oh. Yeah."

"Great. That's great." He started to head off. "Oh, before I forget. I'm returning to Djose in the morning but I'll have a commsphere delivered to your room so you can keep me updated on any further developments."

She was a bit astonished. He actually sounded like her boss! She wasn't sure what to make of that. "Yeah but –um- don't you need me in Djose?" she asked skeptically.

"Yeah. But I need you there too. Unfortunately, we can't get everything we want." There was a strange expression on his face when he said that.

"Gi-"

Gippal's commsphere buzzed angrily at him. He glared at it as though it offended him. "And that would be my meeting." He gave her a brief wave and trotted away, shouting at the sphere, "I'm coming dammit!"

"But… oh forget it," she muttered. If he was going to be that way…

She examined the sphere fragments. Well, at least she had something to look forward to that evening. Hastily, she made her way across the camp towards the living quarters. First things first, she had to have a shower. As grimy as she felt, she knew she probably smelled worse.

"Hey, Rikku! Want to join us for a few drinks?" Zanno called from his flat the floor above hers.

"No thanks. I've got some plans."

"Aw, come on! It won't be fun without you!"

She smiled. "It won't be fun with me either, considering I have a mystery to solve!"

He paused. "Eh, you have a point. Well, we'll be in the lounge on the first floor if you change your mind."

"Yeah, maybe later."

She let herself into her flat and immediately gagged. Ugh! The musty odor of a closed up room was suffocating. 'I suppose that's what I get. I did leave this place during that whole Plague business and then working at Djose…' Crossing the room, she flung the window open and flung her hands through the air, trying to waft the air from the room. That proved useless.

With a sigh, she dumped her knapsack onto a rickety wooden desk in the corner of her room and then headed for the shower. The water was pleasantly hot, causing her aches to melt away. She smiled. She hadn't put that much effort into digging in… well, ever. It made her feel good. She put all of her frustration into her work and it paid off. Now she was as languid as a jellyfish. She giggled at the analogy.

And Gippal… Gippal was actually satisfied with her work. The thought made a warm feeling spread through her and she flushed and concentrated on vigorously scrubbing her long blond hair. Why is this time any different? He'd been satisfied with her work before. Why had that afternoon been different? "It wasn't," she told herself firmly. But the fluttering in her stomach told her yes, indeed, it was.

Suddenly she wasn't enjoying her shower so much anymore. Confused and panicky, she quickly rinsed her hair, dried off, dressed, and left the bathroom. Her eyes fell on her desk and she felt a sense of calm wash over her. The sphere fragments still lay there, waiting to be cleaned. She took a deep breath. Yes, she still had a job to do.

She plopped gracelessly into the rickety wooden chair before the desk, snapped on a pair of thin gloves, and, after a lot of rooting in the desk's messy drawer, found a small tool kit. She picked the sphere fragment up and examined it closely before picking out the finest pick and getting to work.

It took nearly three hours of painstakingly slow work, but finally, the sphere fragments were spotless, glowing faintly. Rikku straightened, arching her back. She winced, hearing her spine crack. "All right you… Let's see if you're mates." She hunched over the pieces again and attempted to fit them together. There were only two. Honestly, how difficult would they be.

"ARRRGH!"

An hour later, Rikku's frustrated scream filled her room. She had learned just how difficult it was. No matter what she tried, the pieces would not fit together. She glared at them angrily, as if they had personally insulted her. She pushed the fragments away in disgust. As far as she saw it, there were two explanations as to why the pieces didn't fit together. One was that another piece (or pieces) fit between the other two. That was fine. She could handle that. The second theory was that they belonged to two totally different spheres. And she could not handle that. If the second explanation was the case, then she wasted many hours working on nothing.

With a sigh, she yanked the gloves off her hands and tossed them aside. It was time for a break. Her stomach growled fiercely at her and she spared a glance out the window. The sky was a rich, velvety black, dotted with shimmering white stars. She blinked. "Cripes, is it that late?"

Yanking her boots onto her feet, she dashed from her room and headed for the dining hall. Hopefully it would still be open. Luck was with her for once, and she got herself some supper without much trouble. A few stragglers such as herself were also dining. She plopped into the nearest available chair at an empty table and let herself relax for a moment. 'Okay, Rikku. This is no time to freak out. I have plenty of time to get this solved. No one is going to be digging there for a while. Tomorrow is another day and-'

"Mind if I sit here?"

A familiar voice pulled Rikku out of her thoughts and she looked up, startled. "Oh, Nhadala. Hi. Uh, yeah, sit."

The older woman smiled faintly. "You sound so excited."

"What? Oh." She grinned sheepishly. "Sorry. I'm just distracted."

"By thoughts of a certain blond leader."

"Huh…" Rikku blushed brilliantly. "Nhadala? Where the hell did that come from?"

She laughed. "I'm only teasing. Though you have to admit, he's very good looking. I'd chase after him myself if I was ten years younger."

"Yeah… hey!"

Again, Nhadala laughed. "Oh, you can't deny it now."

"That's cheating!"

The woman grinned at her mischievously.

Rikku simply harrumphed. "Anyway… What are you doing here so late? Did you just get out of a meeting?"

Nhadala nodded, with a heavy sigh. "Thank goodness. Politicking was never my style." She smiled grimly. "It's not Gippal's either, so I'm amazed that he is the leader of this Faction. I had to stop him from nearly splitting the representative of New Yevon in two. Granted… I was itching to do the same."

Rikku smiled, amused. "He just has charisma. Unfortunately for him, it seems." She stabbed a vegetable on her plate. Casually, she asked, "So, where is he anyway?"

"Another meeting."

"Really?" She frowned. "I don't remember scheduling that many."

Nhadala shrugged. "This one was impromptu. He had that look in his eye that he was going to make someone's life a living hell and-"

"And take great pleasure doing so!" She laughed. "I know that look well. Who was the poor sap?"

Again, she shrugged. "He just waved us off, pulled out his commsphere, and started yelling. Gippal, angry, after a day of meetings… I feel sorry for whoever it is."

"Me too." She'd dealt with angry Gippal and Gippal after meetings, but never a combination of the two. She winced. "Poor, poor victim."

"So, how are things going between you two?"

Rikku opened her mouth to answer automatically but snapped it shut when she realized what Nhadala had asked. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Fine… why?"

"Just curious."

"Curiosity killed the shoopuf."

She chuckled. "Shoopuf's are lethargic, not curious."

Rikku huffed. "You know what I mean!"

"So, you don't think he's attractive?"

"He's gorgeous, dammit, but that's not the point! He's an arrogant moron! And… and besides, he's my boss!"

"Is that all that's stopping you?"

Rikku stuck her tongue out at the woman. Honestly! Nhadala was being so nosy!

The women ate in silence for several minutes. Several people left and the hall became quieter. Rikku fidgeted uncomfortably. This silence was killing her! She nearly burst when Nhadala finally spoke.

"Gippal says you may be on to something with the investigation," she said seriously.

She shrugged and reiterated the news she told Gippal to Nhadala. The woman too listened well, which Rikku wasn't used to and therefore was oddly amused.

"A sphere, eh? And you're sure it's not just a dud? Perhaps something one of our diggers lost? Or one of the site surveyors?"

Rikku sighed heavily. "Well, no. I'm not positive. But it's the only lead I have so far. And it's… well, it's likely you know? Look, we're still digging tomorrow and however longer it's going to take. I'll figure it out. I know I will."

Nhadala smiled at Rikku. With her so motivated, Nhadala knew that she would get the job done. No wonder Gippal recommended her for the job.

…..

Rikku had been with Zanno near the hover for nearly fifteen minutes waiting for the rest of her investigation team to show up. Her patience was shot. Fifteen minutes late? All of them? She wondered briefly if Gippal had even given out the message that it would be another day of investigation. 'Apparently not,' she thought, gritting her teeth as she stalked back and forth in front of the hover.

"Calm down, Rikku."

"I am calm!" she snapped.

He glanced at her and folded his arms over his chest. "Well, this could be a result of the rumor I heard last night."

"Rumor? What rumor?" She clicked her tongue, annoyed. "If it's another one about Gippal and me, heads are going to roll!"

"Well, I did hear that he had something delivered to your room last night."

"A commsphere! Business, you know." Was everyone at this campsite a gossip?

"So… you and Gippal aren't…"

She glared at him, daring him to complete the sentence.

Zanno turned pink and glanced away, clearing his throat. "Anyway, some of the guys were saying that your investigation team was completely and totally fired. They were sent packing last night. Can't even be janitors."

She forgot her annoyance almost immediately. "Really? But… why?"

He shrugged. "All I heard was that Gippal laid into them really hard."

She frowned. Was that what his impromptu meeting was about the previous night? What did he do that for? How was she going to investigate without a team? Did he expect her to accomplish it on her own? She scoffed. That would be so like him.

"Sadistic grease monkey…"

"Hey Rikku!"

She glanced up and saw a group of five Al Bhed approaching. She pushed herself off the hover and tilted her head quizzically. "What are you guys doing here? Pan?"

A short woman, four years older than Rikku, stepped forward. "We're your new team," Pan said seriously.

"Team?" Rikku repeated stupidly.

"Didn't Gippal tell you?" She sighed. "That guy…"

Rikku shook her head as it dawned on her. What was going through his head, anyway? "Whatever. Never mind that." She glanced at her new team. Well, she supposed she might brief them on what they were searching for before they headed out. She pulled the sphere fragments from her knapsack. "Okay guys, this is what we're looking for. Sphere fragments. It's the only lead I have so far. Well, we will be looking for other… weird things as well but… yeah. This is a start." She frowned. 'Note to self. Group leadership is not your thing!' "So… let's go!"

They all piled into the hover and took off. Amidst the chatter of the others, Rikku was silent. Her stomach was in knots. It had been that way all morning, and now she was able to put words to the feeling. Today might be the day. She might find something incredible. But why was she so nervous about it?

……….

Wow! I am so flattered by the number of reviews I've received for the first chapter of Seraphim! And I'm happy that this story inspired others to read the first one!

FairyIce: Thanks for returning for the sequel! I hope you enjoyed chapter 2 as much as you did chapter 1

Black Eyed Mistress: Well, this story wasn't what I expected from the sequel either! At first, I thought that if I wrote a sequel it would just be a shoddy wannabe romance (I'm not particularly good at romance, in my opinion, which is probably why you were disappointed in that respect. The only other explanation is that Gippal is dense and a pain to work for personally :laughs: ), and then… I saw something at work that totally spawned an idea. An idea from a piece of costume jewelry, imagine that!

Emmy-meister: I hope you enjoy the second chapter as much as you did the first!

Canada Eh: I hope this story will be as interesting as SoD! I have a lot of interesting plot twists, anyway. :grin:

ch!b! z3r0: Thank you for the wonderful compliment! And I'm so surprised you read the first story in one sitting! Amazing!

Raven the Hedgehog: I'm so glad you enjoyed SoD! I hope you continue to enjoy Seraphim as well!

Kookyz: Well, I suppose I can forgive you for not giving me 19 reviews in SoD! (j/k it's cool ) Hmm, well, I'm flattered that my stories are so addicting!

Jezzi: Thank you! And here, finally, is the update.

Kingleby: Yes, I'm rather fond of that airship now as well! But it took quite a bit of trial-and-error to think it up! So I'm glad you enjoyed it.


	3. Chapter 3

Seraphim

AN: I apologize for the lateness of this chapter. It was really difficult to write! I'm so eager to get to the meat of the story that building up to it is hard. Oh, I went through the first two chapters (Well, chapter 1, at least… can't remember if I tweaked chapter 2…), so there are a few changes, if you feel up to looking through them again.

**Chapter 3:**

Rikku sat apart from her investigation team in the shade of the hover while they took a break for lunch. So far, it had been very disappointing. They found nothing. Frustrated, she took a huge bite of her sandwich, as though it had done something to her.

'Was I just lucky yesterday?' She wasn't the sort to believe in luck- you made your own, that was her motto- but she'd also seen a lot of things she previously didn't believe in the last couple of years. Maybe luck existed. Maybe it was working against her for not believing in it for so long. She sulked momentarily at the thought.

After finishing her sandwich, she pulled out her commsphere. Absently, she poked the small button that connected her with Gippal. He had some explaining to do.

He answered immediately, which surprised her slightly. He looked a lot more at ease now that he was away from the meetings on Bikanel.

"Oh, Rikku. It's you."

"What do you mean, oh, it's me?"  
He grinned. "Nothing. To what do I owe the honor of this call? Did you find something? Wait, you solved this… thing, right? I knew I could count on you."

"Uh… no. Nothing yet. I just-"

"Nothing? Then why are you calling me?"

She stuck her tongue out at him. "I was just getting to that if you'd be quiet!"

"Okay, okay. Hurry it along. My lunch is nearly over and I hear that Ralli programmed the 900 series repair drones to … well, explode, rather than repair." He gave her a pained look. "Hurry up out there, Princess! I'm tired of having to repair them myself."

"Oh, you big baby." If she were there, she would have elbowed him. "I just… had a question."

He appeared to be reclining. "Okay, fire at will."

"Why did you fire my team?"

He took a moment, looking quite thoughtful. Finally, he leaned towards the commsphere again. "Because I don't have the time to deal with people who question your authority which, in turn, questions mine. I chose you to be the leader of this investigation and if they are in constant doubt well then, tough shit for them, they're expendable."

"Ouch."

"Does that answer your question?" he asked impatiently.

"Uh… yeah." What was his problem? There was a shout in the background. Something about "Ralli did it again!"

Gippal rolled his eyes. "If I didn't need all the help I could wrangle, I'd fire that dumbass…." And the screen went blank.

Rikku frowned slightly. That was… strange. She shook her head to clear it.

"Sounds like Gippal has it rough," Zanno commented over her shoulder.

"Ah!" She looked back. "I guess. He could use a little rough work if you ask me."

The comment earned her a chuckle.

She smiled, stood, and faced her new team. "You guys ready for more?"

"Yeah!" shouted the over-enthusiastic Tatts. Everyone laughed.

She grinned. That was more like it. "Then let's do it!"

It was several hot and gritty hours later before anything worth mentioning happened.

"Rikku!" Pan shouted from her hollow. "I- well, I think I found something!"

Rikku bolted out of her own hollow and joined Pan. The rest of them followed her suit. In Pan's hand was a strange and delicate object. It was relatively flat and made of a metal so heavily burnished and scorched that Rikku couldn't readily identify it. She took it from Pan and where she expected heaviness she was surprised to find it was equally delicate in weight. The outside edge was scalloped with a thin metal rope lining a curved strip of metal latticework. There was another thin band of metal on the other side of the metal that lined a fancy spread of weaving, carefully decorated with tiny jewels. There was another strip of metal and then… a sphere fragment. The opposing edge of this object was rough and jagged, signs that it had broken off from something larger. Despite the elaborate detail, the object was small, about the size of her palm, and the outside curve suggested that if fully assembled the object was round, it wasn't very much larger.

"What the heck is that?" Tatts asked with a frown as the object was passed from gloved hand to gloved hand.

"If it was smaller I'd say it was jewelry," an older girl named Naida mused. "What do you think?" She glanced at Rikku.

"Well… it… kind of looks like a sphere grid. But it's way too heavy and ornamental for that. And it only has room for one sphere, looks like." She gestured to the gray sphere fragment. "So that would defeat the purpose of the sphere grid." She frowned. So what could it be? She glanced at her team briefly. "Okay you guys, we're going to look for more of this stuff-" she held up the metal plate "-as well. If it still has more sphere fragments attached, the better for us."

The members of her team nodded and, after each got a good look at the plate, went back to work more fervently than before. Rikku smiled as she carried the plate to the hover. Finally some progress! And it didn't hurt that her team didn't argue with her about it. Mentally, she thanked Gippal.

"What did you find?" Zanno asked curiously as she approached.

"Well, it's… it's… well, I don't really know." She held it out for him to look at. He took it as she searched the hover for her knapsack. "At first I thought it was a sphere grid but… looking at it, it just doesn't seem like one, not totally."

Behind her, Zanno was making a strange gargling noise. She frowned quizzically and glanced over her shoulder, intent on asking what in the world he was doing. Her eyes widened in confusion and then horror. Zanno's body was rigid. His back arched painfully as if his body was unconsciously trying to escape from the terrible agony his face suggested. His eyes bulged and saliva trickled sluggishly from the corner of his mouth, wrenched open in a silent scream. In his hands, he gripped the plate so hard that blood seeped from his palms and speckled the sand below.

Rikku assessed this in a quick, frantic glance. "Oh man… oh man, what should I do? Zanno! Zanno! What's wrong?" She wrung her hands frantically before she finally turned to him and did the first thing that came to mind- she seized the plate in his hands and pulled with all her might. "Come on you oaf, let go! Come on Zanno! Mad ku::Let go!" She gave a final heave and fell backwards when the plate wrenched free of his bloody hands. By this time, the entire team had gathered around and gasped collectively when he crumpled to the ground.

Immediately, Pan knelt beside him and felt his neck for a pulse. "He's still alive."

Rikku nodded. "We have to get him back to camp." She didn't know what happened, but she knew whatever it was, it was serious. Worriedly, she glanced at the members of her team. "Er… can any of you actually pilot a hover?"

There was silence among them as they glanced at one another. Rikku's face fell. There was no time to wait for one from camp! Finally, though, Tatts stepped forward.

"I can… mostly."

Mostly? She shook her head. This was not the time for her to be picky, unfortunately. Hastily, she shoved the bloodied plate into her knapsack. "Come on you guys. Help me get him into the hover."

It took four of them to lift him in and, by that time, Tatts had figured out how to start the craft.

Rikku clambered into the seat next to him. "Er, you do know what you're doing right?"

Tatts threw it into reverse. "Of cour-" but he didn't finish his sentence because the hover rocketed backwards.

Rikku and the others screamed.

"I thought you said you could drive this thing!" she shouted.

"Sorry! It's been a while!"

'I'm going to die in a Great Fiery Death… Goodbye Spira!' she thought as he thrust the hover into drive and they jerked erratically across the sand.

But there were no deaths on the way back to the campsite, though, by the time they arrived, Rikku was certain she had whiplash.

She had contacted Nhadala on the return trip, mentioned Zanno's upsetting condition, and, sure enough, she was waiting for them with a pair of medics (for few Al Bhed were adequately skilled in white magic.)

"Femm ra pa ugyo :Will he be okay?" Rikku asked worriedly as the medics pushed past her and extracted Zanno from the back of the hover. Any healing she could manage had failed- he was still unconscious.

"Ra'mm pa veha :He'll be fine," one of the medics replied as they shifted him onto a stretcher and carried him off.

She sighed wearily and turned to her team. They watched her expectantly. "Ah… you know… we're done for today. Um… meet back here same time tomorrow morning. I'll contact you guys if anything changes." They nodded and dispersed. Like it or not, she still had an investigation to conduct.

She plopped down heavily on the hover's fender and buried her face in her hands. Zanno could've been killed and she had no idea what was caused it! Was it the fault of the metal thing Pan found? Possibly. But if so, why hadn't anyone else reacted to it? Or was Zanno just having an 'episode'? Heat could do that to a person, though she'd never seen it happen to an Al Bhed before. Well, that didn't mean it was impossible.

She felt the hover shift and she glanced up. Nhadala had sat beside her.

"What happened?"

She groaned. "Oh, I have no idea…"

The woman gave her a bewildered look. "This happens to Zanno and you have no explanation?"

She shook her head miserably. "He… just started- I don't know- freaking out or something!" She pulled the strange plate from her knapsack. Zanno's blood was drying in the sandy, delicate crevices. She examined it for a moment. Maybe this incident had something to do with the way Zanno held it. With a frown, she held it upright, much in the way he had. But nothing happened.

"What's that thing?"

"Today's major- well, only- find. Other than that, I have no clue." She glanced at Nhadala curiously. "Do you have any theories?"

The woman frowned, examining it when Rikku held it out. "Wall hanging?"

With a snort, Rikku laughed. "Oh cripes… if it is just a wall hanging I'm going to be mad." All that effort and excitement would've been for nothing.

Nhadala smiled faintly. "Well, I'll give you some privacy so you can give Gippal a call," she teased. But she sobered quickly. "He definitely needs to know what happened."

"Yeah," she muttered as she walked away. "I just wish I had a better explanation to give him than 'I don't know'."

After that, it took her nearly an hour of pacing and arguing with herself before she could work up the nerve to contact Gippal to announce her failure as a leader. After all, what would she say? "Hello. We found a wall hanging today. Oh yeah, and Zanno nearly died. How are things there?"

"Wait, what?" Gippal said.

Yes. After an hour of debating, Rikku came to terms with the fact that this was the only way she could figure out how to tell him.

She laughed nervously. "Yeah, we found some weird… thing today." She held the metal plate before the commsphere so he could see. "Nhadala said it looked like a wall hanging. Pretty funny eh? I thought sphere grid, but it's too big for that. What do you think?"

"Yeah, that's nice. How did Zanno nearly die?" he demanded.

She winced. The truth would come out eventually… might as well plow into it with no regrets- no major ones, anyway. "Well… you see… eh heh… I don't really know."

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"Exactly what I said. I. Don't. Know. He just went stiff and the medics haven't talked to me yet."

Gippal swore violently. Then, after taking a deep breath, he held his forehead and said, sounding rather stressed, "So… what you're telling me… what you're saying is… Zanno just freaked out? And you have no idea why? What the hell were you doing, Rikku?"

Her eyes widened and then narrowed and she gritted her teeth. Was he… was he really trying to pin the blame on her? The nerve! "I was doing my job, thank you!" she said, surprisingly able to control the anger in her voice. "And- and anyway, I have a few theories about what happened, neither of which have been proved yet but…you know."

"Okay, spill it."

She harrumphed loudly. Honestly, that temper of his was starting to annoy her. "Well, one is simply the heat. And our medics can prove or not that one… so I just have to wait. The other is this thing," she waved the plate, "which I'm going to clean eventually. It has a sphere fragment attached to it."

Gippal frowned, stroking his chin. "So you think the sphere might be the cause of these so-called 'accidents'?"  
"I don't know. Just guessing."

"That's a lot of help."

"Hey, stop that. I'm trying my best you know!"

"I know." He flashed a charming smile.

She made a face at him. "Anyway… I've never heard of a sphere actually hurting someone." She plunged her hands through her hair and groaned. "I don't know. I don't know! It doesn't make sense! Sphere's can't kill people! They're only used for recordings."

"But they attract things that can hurt or kill people," Gippal pointed out suddenly.

Rikku paused and glanced at him thoughtfully. That was true. She almost said so, but then she frowned as something else occurred to her. "But how would that explain what happened to Zanno? I was standing right there with him and-"

"You were? Why?"

"Uh… lunch break? I don't remember, why is that important?" she asked, arching a brow. His only reply was a vague shrug. "Anyway, I turned away for, like, a second and… then it just happened. I think I would've noticed if something had attacked him."

"Eh, maybe not. If whatever got to him was really small, for instance."

Okay, he made another good point. "But something that small having feathers? I mean, I saw no feathers, but the others who survived an attack mentioned them, remember?" Touché and point!

Gippal frowned, resting his forehead on his fingertips. He was quiet for a full thirty seconds.

"Eh… Gippal?"

"Man, I haven't had to think this hard in… well, anyway, perhaps this attack and the others aren't related. It's possible that the others didn't even find sphere fragments, you know?"

"That's true." Rikku sighed and sat back against her chair, rocking onto the back legs. Silence passed between them as she thought. Then it dawned on her. Why didn't she think of it earlier? She had to talk to the survivors- it was so obvious! Seizing the commsphere, she gave it a vigorous shake. "I've got it!"

On the other end of the connection, Gippal looked very disoriented. "What do you get? And don't do that again. Seeing the image jump like that nearly made me puke."

She offered a brief but sheepish apology and launched immediately into the description of her revelation.

Gippal paused and then snorted back a laugh. "Uh, yeah. I guess that's what I should've had you do in the first place."

She smirked triumphantly. "Ha! So you don't think of everything!"

"Well, neither do you, apparently! But it wouldn't have done us much good anyway, because most of the survivors had either left or were still unconscious."

She sighed. "Well, I'll find out who we have left and grill them." She turned off the commsphere and pushed herself out of her chair. Her mind was reeling. There were so many possibilities of what had happened and she didn't like it. One good thing had come from talking with Gippal, however. She had a goal for the next day, assuming Zanno was still out.

She stopped pacing abruptly. Zanno! The medics should have figured out what happened by then. Hurriedly, she yanked her boots onto her feet and headed out the door, for the infirmary. It took her nearly ten minutes to get there, and that was running. Breathlessly, she stumbled through the glass doors and glanced around. There was a desk to her right. She made her way to it.

"Hey, who can tell me what's happened to Zanno?" she asked the bored receptionist.

The woman snapped her gum and perused her file sphere. "Muugc mega ed'c Cibaneun-Sat Tamm. E'mm byka res vun oui. :Looks like it's Superior-Med Tamm. I'll page him for you.:"

"Yeah, you do that."

The woman gave her an irritated look before making the page. It was another very long ten minutes before Cibaneun-Sat Tamm appeared. He was a short man, still powerful despite his age, with a wild poof of blond hair generously threaded with gray. Not really someone to mess with. Still, Rikku rushed over to him.

"How is Zanno? Have you figured out what happened? Is he conscious? What can you tell me?"

Tamm held his hand in the air. "Uha yd y desa. Zanno'c luhtedeuh ec cdypemewat, pid ra'c cdemm ihluhcleuic :One at a time. Zanno's condition is stabilized, but he's still unconscious:."  
"Still? After all this time?"

He gave her a severe look. "Oac. Fa'na satelc, hud senylma funganc. :Yes. We're medics, not miracle workers:."

She stomped her foot in frustration. "Well… well, can you tell me what happened?"

"Famm, fa'ja nimat uid tarotnydeuh, rayd cdnuga, raynd yddylg, kahanym emmhacc, caewina, ymmankel nayldeuhh, veaht yddylg… pycelymmo, yhodrehk fa luimt dacd, fa tet :Well, we've ruled out dehydration, heat stroke, heart attack, general illness, seizure, allergic reaction, fiend attack… basically, anything we could test, we did.:"

"It wasn't a fiend attack?"

He shook his head.

She frowned. "And… you don't know what happened?"

The medic looked slightly embarrassed. "Hud yd drec buehd eh desa :Not at this point in time," he replied delicately.

Her nostrils flared. Damn. What was she supposed to do? She sighed. "Right. Well, keep me posted." Whirling on her heel she stalked from the infirmary. As she went, however, a growing sense of dread filled her stomach. Was it the Plague again? Surely not… the Plague made people violent. But who knew? She never saw every case…

"No…" she murmured. "Effram's gone. The Plague should be gone with him." But it might have been a residue of it? She hated to admit it, but it was possible. She didn't know a thing about that Plague. This realization chilled her to the core, despite the desert heat.

"But feathers?" For, despite what Gippal said, she couldn't shake the feeling that what happened to Zanno was related to what happened to the other workers.

She ran into Nhadala on the way back to her flat. "Oh, sorry." She helped the woman to her feet as was almost on her way again before she stopped and turned. "Hey, Nhadala. Get me a list of everyone injured at the Northeast dig site. Please?" she added with a slight grin.

The woman nodded. "Sure thing. Who am I to impede on an investigation?"

Rikku smiled. "Thanks." It couldn't hurt to have a game plan for the next day.

……….

FairyIce: Well, at least Gippal explains his reasoning for firing her team, eh? Hope you enjoyed chapter 3

kingleby: Thanks for your compliments! I'm glad you are enjoying the story so far!

Jezzi: I hope this fic continues to be promising! Thanks!

Kookyz::laughs: So far I'm continuing. I hope you enjoy this update as well!

Canada Eh: Well, you'll know what that sphere is soon enough… or will you::bwahaha:

Black Eyed Mistress: It's okay to be a harsh critic! The criticism is hard to take, but I need to learn how to take it! So it is okay. And I'm flattered that you spend the time and effort to understand the story and review and such, I really do appreciate it!

Fanfic-Lover: I'm glad you found me again::laughs: I hope you continue to enjoy the story!

GameGirl101: Hmm, Gippal and Rikku together in this one? We'll see. I hope this chapter is as decent as you anticipated!

Jedi Kacee: Thank you for all of your wonderful comments from both SoD and this story!


	4. Chapter 4

Seraphim

AN: Ahh… So late a chapter. I do apologize. For a while I had no idea what I was writing… That, and the end of the quarter projects were catching up with me. (Project upon project, what a pain) And I kept getting distracted, thinking about how much my writing sucks compared to some of the stuff I've been reading. (It's that way with everything with me! Ha! I laugh at myself!) Ah well It's finally here. And thank you, my patient reviewers. I'd thank you all personally as usual, but apparently we can't do that here anymore. So… without further ado…

**Chapter 4: **

Despite getting to bed late the previous night, Rikku was up with the sun the next morning, full of ambition. She had uncovered a list of those who'd remained after the attacks and was anxious to interview them. After a quick shower and even quicker breakfast, she set out the door with a purpose and glanced at her list. She would first visit a Kilika native called Terak, still in the infirmary with severe lacerations and other such injuries. Maybe internal bleeding, she couldn't remember.

"I'm here to talk with Terak," she said before the receptionist (who was surprisingly the same one she talked with the previous evening) could open her mouth.

"Visiting hours haven't-"

"Started, I know. I'm not visiting. I don't even know him. I'm conducting an investigation," she said, full of self-importance (which was bad, she knew, but she couldn't help it. She was sick of people standing in her way). "Call Gippal if you have a problem with it."

The girl stared at her wide-eyed.

"Terak's room…?" she prompted impatiently. Yes, it was rude. She had no patience to sit around, to be told to wait when she had a goal to see through.

She bristled at Rikku's tone. "Down the hall, first door on the right. Try not to disturb anyone."

"I won't, sheesh. I'm just going to ask some questions." Turning on her heel, Rikku headed down the hall she'd been directed towards. Sure enough, Terak's patient nameplate was on the first door on her right. Taking a deep break, she pressed the small button below the nameplate and the door slid open silently. The room was dark, as the shades were drawn, but she made out a sleeping form on the bed in the corner. Purposefully, she crossed the room and looked down at this man called Terak. Though his limbs were wrapped in bandages, he wasn't that bad looking, with short, spiky dark hair, richly tanned skin, and a peaceful face. Of course, he was sleeping- or so she thought until he opened one gray-blue eye.

She started and stepped back with a nervous laugh. "Uh, heh heh… sorry about that. I'm-"

But she didn't get to finish.

The young man bolted upright and, wincing in pain, tried to scramble back, only to be stopped by the wall. "You…you… get away from me!"

She blinked. What in the… "Excuse me?"

"You heard me!" His voice took on a shrilly quality. "Don't think you can fool me, demon!" He gave a strained laugh. "Oh no! You won't get me again! Nurse! NURSE!"

She took a step closer. "What the heck are you blabbing-"

"STAY AWAY!" he screamed. "I'll fight you this time, I will! NURSE!"

"Hey! I just wanted to ask-"

"NURSE!"

The door opened and a pair of hands seized Rikku and roughly hauled her from Terak's room.

"What the- hey!" she squawked. She glanced back and saw a nurse glowering at her.

"Fryd dra ramm tet oui tu :What the hell did you do?" he demanded over Terak's mad screaming.

"Hudrehk, E cfayn :Nothing, I swear!"

"Dryd tuach'd cuiht mega hudrehk! E's kuehk du ryja du nabund drec :That doesn't sound like nothing! I'm going to have to report this!" he grunted, pushing her towards the exit.

"Pid E teth'd :But I didn't:- oof!" She gagged when the nurse shoved her out the door and face first into the sand. Sitting up, she spat the grit from her mouth.

What had that been all about? She harrumphed and choked on a grain of sand. Clearly, Terak was insane. And by the look the nurse was still giving her, she wasn't going to be allowed back into the infirmary for quite some time. She made a face at him and, getting to her feet, headed in the opposite direction, completely stumped at what to do next.

Rikku sat on the edge of Zanno's choice hover and watched absently as diggers came and went, assistants ran to and fro, and friends joked and gossiped on their way to work or wherever they were headed. She shifted her weight awkwardly. This was the first time she felt out of place here. She had changed, and not all for the better. She felt trapped, as if there was something she had to do, could do, to improve her situation but she had no idea what. And it didn't help that she'd become hyperirritable and impatient with the world around her. What happened to her old self? She frowned. She knew what happened. The Plague. Effram. The feeling that she couldn't trust anyone anymore. It was a bad feeling. She hated that feeling.

Sulking, she dug her toe into the sand. 'This sucks. I mean it, it really sucks.' There was nothing for her to do. All of her other interviewees were in the infirmary and her investigation team was given time off so she had nothing planned. 'I hate this! I don't like sitting around doing nothing…'

A loud buzz startled her out of deep thought and she slipped clumsily off the hover with a squeak. Flushing, she yanked her commsphere out and slapped it on, brushing sand from her hair and body. The first sound she was greeted with was laughter. Quite familiar laughter.

"Trying to reinstate sand castles as legit work, Highness? Though I can't understand how you could go to the bathroom on a sand toilet. Royalty certain has odd taste."

She stuck her tongue out at him and spat again as she accidentally licked the sand from her lips. He laughed again for nearly five minutes. She arched a brow and waited until it finally began to fade. "Are you finished?

"Yes, I-" Another laugh escaped and he shook his head. "Hold on. Hee hee… ahem… haha… erm… yes. Okay, I'm done. You crack me up, your highness."

"Glad someone could do it." She brushed the last of the sand from her face. "What do you want?"

"Status check. What's happening?"

"Well, not much of anything at the moment." She filled him in on what had happened in the infirmary.

Gippal frowned. "What the hell kind of ship is Nhadala running out there?" He shook his head. "So this Terak fellow went crazy?" He straightened. "You don't think this is Plague-related, do you?"

Rikku paused. Was it? She thought about the symptoms. Darkness- well, she didn't actually touch him, so there was no way for her to know for sure; violent anger-certainly none of that. She shook her head. "I don't think so. He didn't want to hurt me. In fact," she mused, "it was like he was afraid of me."

"Afraid? Who would be afraid of you?"

"I know… hey! Meanie!"

He chuckled. "Anyway, either the attack addled this guy's brains or he was crazy to start with- that's my theory. I'll see if the meds can look into his medical history.

"Any plans on what you're going to do next?"

She shrugged. "Nothing. I doubt they'll let me back into the infirmary. Apparently I'm a threat to the patients." She pouted.

Gippal giggled- actually giggled! "Oh, I just can't believe that. You!"

"Yeah, I know. Me. Gippal, I'm trying to be serious here."

"You?"

She rolled her eyes but there was a faint grin tugging at her lips. "Yeah. I thought we just established that, you big lug."

"Well, I don't know what to tell you," he continued with a shrug. "There's no one who will pilot the hover to where you need to go?"

She shook her head. Especially not after what had happened to Zanno. "Well, maybe Tatts, but he's a piloting maniac." She sighed in frustration. Why couldn't Spira just stay safe? Why did someone- or something- always have a vendetta against this world? "I'll give it the rest of the day. If I can't find a pilot…" she gulped, "I'll have Tatts do it.

"Now that's more like the Cid's Girl I know. Contact me if anything changes." And the sphere went blank.

If anything changed? That was vague. She grinned. Could she contact him if the wind direction changed? Or if the minute hand on the clock changed from minute to minute? Oh the fun she could have with that one! …Like she would. With a chuckle, she got to her feet. Well, the least she could do was look for a pilot to take her to the Northeast Expanse.

''''

"He what!" Rikku yelped, staring at a gangly blond youth close to her age. He looked very nervous.

"Went on vacation, ma'am."

She bristled. "Don't call me ma'am like I'm your mother or something! I'm not even twenty!"

Tatts' roommate gulped. "Yes ma-… uh, okay."

Rikku sat on the edge of a nearby chest of drawers. Her pilot search had proven fruitless. Still was, as a matter of fact. "Tatts… went on vacation, you say? Where? And why didn't he tell me?"

"I-I don't know. And I don't know."

She grunted.

"Please don't hurt me!"

She stared at him in shock and straightened to her full height, which was about an entire head shorter than the boy. Was she really intimidating? This short? She laughed slightly at the thought. "Me? Hurt you? I'm not going to hurt you, cripes." She tossed her hair over her shoulder and said with a feral grin, "I'm going to hurt whoever forgot to tell me he had a vacation coming up."

He simply squeaked.

With a sigh, she bade the nervous boy farewell. 'Well? Now what?' she wondered, making her way toward her own flat. No one else would or could pilot the hover. She didn't even know how, not the ones used on Bikanel, anyway. She stomped in frustration. Why weren't they all taught such a useful skill? It would certainly make her job a hell of a lot easier!

''''

Rikku leaned against an unused hover, staring at the sky. It was a cloudless, whitish blue with heat- in other words, completely uninteresting. Anyone who knew her would've thought she'd finally gone mad. She was not the sort to be still for hours. Not normally. But she wasn't standing around just to enjoy the scenery. She waited, with remarkable patience, for Gippal to show up.

She had contacted him to point out a very big change in plans- the absence of a suitable hover pilot. And, after some uncalled for swearing and something about "If you want something done right…" he insisted that he'd be there within the next several hours.

Several hours had indeed passed. She wondered, vaguely, how he was able to take so much time away from Djose. With the way he carried on, no one was competent enough to take his place for fifteen minutes, let alone a day or more. And secretly, she was starting to agree.

She straightened as she saw a dark speck approaching over the sand horizon. The flight pattern was straight and true, ruling out the approach of a fiend. She smiled faintly, standing. Gippal had finally arrived. But, much to her impatience that finally came out now that she saw him, it took another fifteen minutes for him to finally land.

"It's about time!" she said the moment he set foot on the sand.

He chuckled. "I told you it'd be a few hours." With a smirk he reached out and touched her cheek. "You're sunburned. Did you wait out here all this time?"

She blushed. "Yes well… I'm impatient."

He laughed.

Her blush grew. "Can we just go now?"

"Just a minute, your highness," Gippal replied, letting the last of his laughter fade away. "I need to go stop in on Nhadala right quick."

"But-"

With a grin, he held a finger to her lips. His eyes danced mischievously. "It'll only be a moment. Then you'll have me all to yourself, your highness."

"No! That's not what I-"

"Ah-ah! Save it for later." He winked and sauntered off.

She plopped down on the hover, her face hot. "Dummy," she muttered, though she wasn't sure whether she was talking about him… or herself.

True to his word, Gippal returned in under five minutes. "We're good to go. I've got the keys and I instructed Nhadala to give Tatts a sound beating when he returns."

"You what?" Rikku squawked.

"Just kidding. Now come on." He clambered into the hover. "Nhadala told me there was a sandstorm heading for the site with in the next several hours. We only have a short time." He patted the seat. "Climb up next to Papa."

"If it was anyone but you saying that, I'd slug you," she replied, climbing in next to him.

With the practiced ease of a teenaged hover master, Gippal revved the engine to life and they sped off smoothly over the sand.

''''

They spent over an hour digging in a persistently hot sun. Gippal had shed his shirt well before and still rivulets of sweat trickled down his skin. Rikku fought hard to keep herself from staring. She found it was a losing battle, with his lightly tanned skin, and perfectly sculpted torso. Despite the fact he was an office man now, it was oh so clear he still worked out…

"Good grief. How long before we find anything?" he complained.

She blinked. "What?… Oh… We might not find anything," she grunted, returning to her determined clawing into the sand. "And then there are only two of us. You can't expect a whole lot."

"Are you serious? I came out here for what might be nothing?"

She didn't bother gracing that with a reply. Men could be such babies. With a sigh, she stood and dusted the sand from her gloved fingertips. "I'm going to get something to drink. Want anything?"

He shook his head. "I'll get something later."

She shrugged and headed to the hover, scavenging through the back seat in search of a water source. Men were babies… and such slobs too! She muttered to herself, shoving aside stacks of paper, coffee cups, and food wrappers.

"Holy shit! Rikku, come check this out!"

She sighed and straightened, smacking her head on the frame of the hover. "Ouch! What is it?" She rubbed the back of her head with a grimace and padded across the sand to where Gippal dug. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head at what she saw. At his feet were at least a dozen gray sphere shards. She jumped into the hole with him.

"This… this is incredible!"

Together they scooped up the fragments and dumped them onto a small towel Rikku spread out earlier beside the hole. Carefully, she pulled the pieces she'd previously excavated from her sack and set them next to the new fragments. In silence, she and Gippal began to piece it together.

Despite the length of time that passed, Rikku was remarkably patient. Gippal even commented on it.

She gave a cheeky grin. "With enough determination, even I can be patient- Gippal! That's the last piece!" she yelped, noticing the final fragment in his hand. This was it! The moment she'd be waiting for since she found the dratted sphere. "Hurry, hurry, put it in!"

Gippal laughed. "What happened to your patience?"

"Patience? Come on, this is me we're talking about. I don't have any patience. Put that piece in already!"

"Okay, okay." And he moved to carefully put the final piece into place. But it would go. He frowned. His gloves were far too bulky and cumbersome to allow it.

Rikku made a noise that sounded distinctly like "grrr" and she ripped a glove off of one of her hands with her teeth and spat it to the ground. "Let me have it." She seized the fragment and immediately felt a wave of utter 'weirdness' wash over her. She dismissed it as nerves, though she sore she thought she heard chanting. Taking a deep breath, she pushed the fragment into the final crevice and the sphere exploded with light.

''''

Ah hah! Cliffy! And… if anyone can think of a male Al Bhed name… I wouldn't mind some help I'm at a crossroad… I am in need of a name! Much obliged and a chocolate chocobo to those who can offer one!


	5. Chapter 5

Seraphim

I do apologize dearly for the tardiness of this chapter! And I do warn you… I've become obsessed with Gundam Wing (see my fiction for it under the name **one-hep-cat**). Because of that, and the fact that I've been writing a lot since I've been sick all winter break (and vastly inspired) my writing style has changed a bit. I'm trying not to let it reflect in this story but… if it has, I apologize!

Special thanks to The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel for how to survive a sandstorm. grin And thank you so much to everyone who offered names for this chapter! I chose Syoheki, which was offered by HeavenlyAnimeAngel-Amaterasu. Merci beaucoup! –curtsy-

**Chapter 5:**

She knew this feeling, this myriad of light that swirled into and around her. The only thing she didn't know was why it was happening. Her body arched delicately and slowly lifted into the air as if guided by invisible hands. Brilliant light swirled around her like eddies of water, tousling her hair gently. Her skin tingled with magic. A sphere change. But she didn't understand. She didn't invoke it. She shouldn't be changing!

Her traditional Al Bhed jumpsuit dissolved into tattered violet gauze and beaded sandals replaced leather boots on her feet. With a cry of agony and a burst of blinding light, feathery gray wings exploded from her shoulder blades. The transformation was complete. Slowly, slowly she sank to the ground, the gray wings cocooning her body.

Behind her was a voice, taut with worry and disbelief. A voice she knew dearly speaking a name she did not.

"Rikku, what the hell was that? Are you okay? Rikku!"

Slowly, she lifted her head and looked over a winged shoulder. There he was. What was he wearing? He looked ridiculous. She straightened and turned, her wings arching behind her. "Rikku… why do you call me this?" He stared at her as though she'd grown a second head. "I asked you a question, Syoheki."

"Syoheki?" he repeated. "What are you… Rikku, it's me, Gippal."

"Gippal." Her mouth was awkward around the name. "You mean to tell me that you are not Syoheki?"

"Yeah… obviously. Rikku, this game isn't funny."

"Game?" Her face looked severe. "You think this a game?" She took a step towards him and he stepped back hastily. But there was no need for it, for as she moved, she faltered and sank to her knees. "Oh… what's… happening?" The world spun before her eyes and she collapsed. A brilliant flash of light engulfed her and moments later she was as she had originally been, in the sandy jumpsuit, unconscious.

Gippal seized her shoulders and gave her limp body a vigorous shake. "Rikku! Rikku, come on! Wake up!" Her head flopped around on her neck like a limp rag doll.

He spat out a sudden mouthful of sand and it was then he realized that the wind had picked up tremendously. The sandstorm!

"Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn!"

Scrambling over to the hover, he seized two bandanas from his hip pouch and soaked them in water from a half empty canteen, wrapping it around the lower half of his face. He returned to Rikku and tied the other around her face. Already, the sand was stirring, tearing at his exposed skin. "Come on Rikku! Now would be a great time to wake up!"

But she didn't listen. Gippal fell back to swearing profusely, despite the fact that it wouldn't help.

Well, he couldn't just let her remain there and get eaten away by the sand bit by bit. Squinting against the wildly lashing sand, he crouched down to pick her up. Overhead, the yellow sky brightened with the blue-white flash of lightening. "Why me?" he moaned, scooping her body off the ground.

Almost blinded by the storm now, Gippal staggered to the hover. He nearly missed it too and only the sound of Rikku's flailing arm smacking on it alerted him to its presence. Unceremoniously, he dumped Rikku into the back and, with great effort, secured the reinforced canvas flaps against the violent storm.

Sighing heavily, he plopped back against his seat and stared out the windshield at the literal wall of sand brewing before him. Behind him, Rikku groaned. His brow furrowed and sand showered into his lap. Making a face, he brushed the particles out of his hair as he wondered what the hell had just happened to Rikku. He'd never seen anything like it. Now the startling change in clothing could be explained by a sphere change- he'd never seen one but he could make an educated guess. But what would explain the wings? Those damn things were real! And her personality, talk about tense! What would explain the change in that? Had she finally gone mental? Was she playing a dirty trick on him? Or was he simply dreaming?

"Oh my head…" Rikku croaked behind him. She sat up, wincing as a lancing pain threatened to split her very skull in two. "What… happened?"

Gippal turned to face her. "That is what I'd like to know."

"Huh?" She shook her head and sand scattered across the hover's already sandy floor. "All… all I remember is … being forced into a sphere change."

"Forced?"

She nodded, wincing again. Oh the pain! "I certainly didn't choose to do it."

He frowned deeply. "Something… very weird is going on."

''''

There was a loud shriek. On the other end of the commsphere, Yuna winced. But her smile was unmistakable. Rikku plopped down before the sphere. "In three days?" she squeaked. "You're wedding is in three days and you're only telling me now?"

"I know, I'm sorry! We wanted to keep it quiet…" She paused and glanced over her shoulder for several seconds. "Though I think I just heard a spherecast…" She sighed and wrinkled her nose. "You can still come, right?"

"There is no way I'm going to miss it!" She sighed gleefully. "Tidus and Yunie, joined at last. Even a thousand years couldn't keep them apart. So romantic!"

Her cousin blushed. Through a laugh, she said, "I'd better go. I have a lot to do and I still have to get a hold of Paine."

"Right. Okay! See you then!"

The sphere went blank. Rikku sat back on her bed, grinning from ear to ear. Yuna and Tidus were finally getting married. It seemed like ages ago when they first got engaged, not simply a few months. She frowned thoughtfully. So much had happened in such a short time. And the wedding! Wow!

The commsphere rolled off her bed with a heavy thunk. Grunting, she leaned over to grab it. Now all she needed to do was find herself a date. As if reading her mind, the sphere squawked at her. With a yelp, she toppled off the bed. Blushing despite the fact that no one could see her, she righted herself and connected the call.

"Ah… Gippal, hi," she squeaked blushing her tousled hair from her burning face.

"Hey, I've been trying to get in touch with you for the past hour."

"Oh yeah, Yunie called."

He laughed. "I can't imagine what you two could talk about for so long. How is she?"

"Fabulous! Getting married in three days!" She held up three fingers. "And she just tells me now… Speaking of which, I want to take off for that day so I can go. And hey, if you want, you can even be my date?"

Gippal frowned. As did she. This was not a good reaction. "Rikku… I don't think you should be goofing off at a time like this-"

"But-"

"We have to figure out that weird sphere. I'm really worried-"

She interrupted him with an exasperated snort. "It's one day, Gippal! It's not like I'm going to lie about on the beach and work on my tan! My cousin and best friend is getting married and I want to be there! It's not goofing off!"

He looked upset now. "You have a job to do-"

"And a life to live!"

"Are you telling me you quit?"

She exhaled loudly. "No! Jeez, what's gotten into you?" He didn't answer. "Fine- how about this? I'll take the damned sphere with me. That way I only stop working on it for what, an hour?" She glared at him. "Do you think I could have an hour off?"

Gippal sighed. "You make it sound like I'm a tyrant."

"You're acting like one!"

"I'm just… Rikku, I just-" His nostrils flared. "Oh never mind. Go. Have a good time."

"I will!"  
"Fine!"

"Well?"

He stared at her through the sphere. "Well what?"

"Are you going with me or not?" she asked.

"I…" He paused. His face made it look like he was going to say yes. But then he shook his head. "I… er… have a lot of things to do," he said hastily.

Was he… blushing? "Gip-"

"How are things going with the sphere?"

Rikku frowned, watching him. "Still not sure about it. I'm pretty sure it's a dressphere but I can't figure out why it went wacko on me." And it didn't help that she was afraid to find out.

Gippal pursed his lips, looking frustrated.

"Hey, are you… okay?"

"Fine. I'm just- Look, I've got to go."

"Gippal-" she began again but the connection was broken. She stared at the commsphere with a deep-set frown. He was acting oddly ever since 'The Incident' with the mystery sphere. That had been over a week ago. Normally he'd never pass up an opportunity for a small vacation. And she had been certain he'd want to attend Yuna's wedding. All of Spira wanted to, for goodness' sake.

With a sigh, she fiddled with her commsphere. Well, there was no way she was going to that wedding by herself. After a bit of consideration, she made another call.

"Hey Zanno, want to go to Yuna's wedding with me?"

''''

Rikku sighed, checking her carefully piled hair in a small mirror for the fifth time during the flight. Behind her Zanno chuckled weakly.

"You look fine," he said, his voice still somewhat raspy.

She turned to him, smiling. "I just can't help being paranoid. My hair rarely does fancy upsweeps well." She plopped in the chair beside him. "It has a mind of its own."

Again, he laughed.

"Thanks for coming with me, Zanno. I know you just woke up last week and you still need to rest…" He was still pale and a great deal thinner than usual from his stay at the infirmary.

He shrugged. "Ah, I've rested enough. Any more rest and I'd go insane."

She laughed and followed it with an impatient stamp of her foot, which was clad in dainty green sandals that matched her gauzy green dress. "Are we there yet?"

"Raring to go, are we?" he teased.

"Of course! I want to be there already! I want to see Yunie's dress before the rest of the world gets to!"

"You haven't seen it yet?"

"No! Can you believe it?" she asked as if positively scandalized.

"Tsk. And you her own cousin!"

She made a face. "Now you're just making fun of me."

"Yeah," he admitted.

She gasped and swatted him. "Come on fly boy. Speed it up. I want to get there early."

By the time they walked onto Besaid's port, Rikku was certain the little island was going to sink to the bottom of the ocean beneath the weight of all the wedding guests and their many ships. Gracelessly, she elbowed her way through the crowd, dragging Zanno behind her.

"Rikku!" came a shout.

She glanced around, but everyone was a head talker than her and she didn't see a face she recognized immediately. But she thought she knew the voice. "Tidus?" she shouted over the din.

"Over here!"

"Yeah, I can't see you, dummy!"

Zanno laughed. "I think I see him." He seized her arm and hauled her off in a direction opposite to the one she was heading.

Seconds later she heard another exclamation. "Holy crap Rikku, you actually look like a lady!"

This earned Tidus a slug in the arm. "Meanie!"

He laughed and gave her a tight hug. "It's been a while."

"I know! Nervous."

"As hell."

She grinned. "Where's Yunie?"

Getting ready. She won't let me see her."

"Of course not! It's wedding taboo for the groom to be a filthy peeping tom!"

He sputtered and turned scarlet. "That's- I mean- Rikku!"

With a laugh, she said, "I'm teasing. So, shouldn't you be getting ready?" she asked, eyeing his lack of wedding attire as they headed down a less traveled path towards the village.

"It'll take me a lot less time than it's taking Yuna. Lulu's treating it like she's getting ready for her coronation. And she made Wakka and the Aurochs stand guard. It's actually pretty hysterical. So that's why I'm the one meeting you here." He then glanced at Zanno. "Who's this? I thought you'd be coming with that… Machine whatsis leader."

"This is Zanno and no."

Tidus smiled congenially at him. "Er… rammu :hello," he said haltingly.

Zanno grinned. "I speak Basic."

"Great! I mean…"

They laughed. "You can't get out of it now Tidus!"

They chatted and exchanged playful banter the rest of the way to the village. Rikku was astounded to see it was just as crowded as the port- and these were all different people!

"Is the wedding going to be broadcast all over Spira?" she squawked, seeing the priestess-turned-reporter Shelinda milling through the crowd brandishing a microphone.

"Yeah… kind of unfortunately. They snuck up on us. But if they weren't here, the crowd would be ten times worse," Tidus muttered, leaning them towards Yuna's hut.

Rikku nearly laughed at the sight of Besaid's slightly bumbling blitzball team surrounding the hut. They looked almost as serious as they would for the league tournament! She grinned.

"No way," Wakka said importantly, standing guard before the door flap. He pushed Tidus back. "No grooms allowed!"

She peered around Tidus' shoulder. "What about cousin and best friend?"

He seized her arm. "It's about time you got here. Lu's gone crazy and Yuna's not too far behind, ya?" He shoved her through the door flap.

With a yelp, she stumbled in. All activity in the hut halted momentarily. It was a hysterical sight. Yuna was half in her dress- a beautiful and simple white gown that blended into a watery blue color near her feet. Lulu was clutching a tuft of Yuna's stubborn hair. Their good friend Paine was there too, teetering precariously on her toes as she reached for a box atop a cupboard.

"Hey guys."

Paine promptly stumbled into the cupboard. Lulu fell into her chair as Yuna burst out from her care and threw her arms around her cousin.

"You're here! I think I'm going to go insane! Look at all these people! All of them! And there are more watching at home! I just wanted a small wedding!"

"Yunie?" Rikku held her out at arms length, gripping her shoulders. "It's called breathing. Inhale. Exhale. Repeat as necessary. Okay." She smiled. "Now… you have a big wedding about to happen. If you wanted a small wedding, you should have married him before you defeated Sin."

Yuna groaned.

"Kidding, kidding. What can I help with?"

All three of them shoved a project into her hands. She chatted enthusiastically with them as she laced up Yuna's bodice, rearranged her bouquet of white roses and baby's breath, and filed her nails. Yuna finally seemed to calm down, prompting Rikku to ask teasingly, "Remembering how to breathe now?"

"I think so."

She grinned. "You'll be fine. There. Nails are done." And it was just in time too. Outside the door flap, Wakka was shouting that they had to get going. Immediately, Yuna's nerves jumped again.

"Hey. Don't start wringing your hands, they're not dry!" Paine said, pulling her fingers apart.

"And remember, you've done this before," Rikku teased. "Only this time you're marrying someone you actually like, let alone love."

Yuna choked on a laugh. Even Lulu and Pain chuckled.

"Thanks," she said, slightly tearful. She gave Rikku a tight hug.

"Hey, that's what I'm here for," she murmured, returning the embrace. She gave her a light kiss on the cheek and smiled, feeling a bit tearful herself. "Break a leg. But not really."

She, Paine, and Lulu filed from the hut.

I can't believe Yunie's finally getting married!"

"She deserves it. She's put Spira's happiness before hers for so long."

"I know Lulu… boy do I know. Oh, I just love weddings!"

"You're not going to start crying, are you?"

"Oh shut up Paine! You meanie… And so what if I cry!"

"Rikku!"

She turned from the playful banter at the sound of her name. With a grin, she waved at Zanno. "I'd better get to my seat. See you after the ceremony!" And she ran to join her friend.

With a hand on the small of her back, Zanno guided her through the throngs of people to the chairs situated before Besaid's well-kept ex-temple of Yevon. Rikku pointed out people she knew, people she liked, and people she didn't like so much.

"There's Dona… she's kind of psychotic. And her lover Barthello… even more psychotic. And…oh, that's Beclem. And I said Dona was psychotic? He's the Youth League recruiter, gung-ho and a little trigger happy if you ask me. Why he'd come to see Yuna's wedding is beyond me."

"Rikku?"

She glanced over her shoulder, as did Zanno. Her jaw dropped in surprise. "Gippal?"

''''

If you wish to see what the Seraphim dressphere looks like, go to my website: , click on dolls, characters, page 2. I have an example for Rikku and I tried out Yuna and Paine, though theirs has nothing to do with the story -grin-.


	6. Chapter 6

**Seraphim**

_Nng, this chapter was late, wasn't it? I really hope that this doesn't become a recurring problem… I still blame it on my Gundam Wing obsession (Again- if you're interested, see my fiction for it under the name **one-hep-cat**). This chapter is a bit shorter than usual, but I hope you all continue to enjoy it!_

**Chapter 6:**

Rikku blinked and shook her head, as though she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Well, that was because she couldn't. There stood Gippal as if he had intended to attend Yuna's wedding the entire time.

"What are you doing here?" she asked stupidly.

"Reciting poetry. Come on, Highness. What does it look like?"

"But… you said you weren't coming." She arched a brow slightly.

"Well, you know me. Can't resist a good party. And High Summoner Yuna's wedding is probably going to be one hell of a party."

She frowned deeply. "But you told me you weren't coming. You even yelled at me for wanting to come."

Gippal sighed. "Would you believe I was having a bad day? Forgive me?" He fluttered his lashes endearingly.

"Oh fine," she said, rolling her eyes slightly. "But you'll have to find somewhere else to sit. Zanno took your seat." She gestured to the blond beside her.

It was Gippal's turn to frown. He eyed Zanno. "Oh… really? I though you were supposed to be resting, man," he said in a clipped manner.

"He is. Sitting is resting. It's not like he's dancing on the tables or racing around with the Fiend Fighters Association."

Gippal grunted.

She gave him a pointed look. Suddenly, a slow grin crept onto her face. Was he…? 'Cripes, I think he is! I think he's jealous!'

"What? What's so funny?" he demanded grouchily.

She gave him a gleeful look. "Oh nothing," was her singsong reply.

He gave her a skeptical look before flickering a glare at Zanno again.

He was, he was, he was!

Music sounded loudly. Rikku squeaked and waved at Gippal. "Go. Go sit down. The wedding is about to start!"

To her surprise he didn't walk away. Instead, with a grunt, he plopped into the vacant seat next to her.

"Gippal! That's someone else's seat!" she hissed, astounded by his gall.

He shrugged. "First come first serve, right Zanno?"

Zanno looked vaguely put off.

Rikku stared at Gippal, unable to believe what she was seeing. Or hearing! She grinned. "Well, try using that excuse on the person who reserved that seat and see how far it gets you."

He smirked, relaxing further in the chair. "I'm sure there will be no problems. After all, I doubt any of these people want to be remembered as the clods who started a fight at the esteemed High Summoner's wedding."

She gasped. "You're terrible!" Then she whacked him hard to silence him as the wedding procession emerged. The crowd ooh'ed and ahh'ed as one unit as Yuna stepped into view. Rikku squeaked and gripped the edge of her chair excitedly.

The wedding was positively wonderful. Yuna looked beautiful and she had to admit that Tidus didn't look half bad either. The couple was blessed, vows were exchanged, and kisses were shared. The guests gave a tumultuous cheer when Tidus scooped Yuna in his arms and carried her back down the aisle. She laughed lightly and flung her bouquet over his shoulder. Dozens of girls lunged for it. Rikku, who was too busy whistling and cheering for her cousin to care about any bouquet was struck dumb when it bopped her on the head. It showered her with petals and leaves and rolled off her head to land smartly in her arms. She blinked in surprise. Gippal and Zanno hooted and hollered and the unlucky girls jealously glared at her.

After her initial surprise wore away, Rikku stood on her chair and did a little dance of joy. "Hey Yunie! I caught the bouquet!" she shouted to the retreating couple. She laughed at the sight of Yuna giving her the victory sign over Tidus' head.

"It's time to party!" Gippal roared over the noise and the guests bellowed enthusiastically in agreement.

Rikku gave a shriek of laughter when he lifted her onto one shoulder and started bopping his way through the crowd.

And what a party it was. There was singing and dancing and plenty of drinking deep into the night. Rikku could've sworn she saw even the hardhearted Beclem dancing with three girls at one time. She herself had long since discarded her shoes and took her turns dancing with Wakka, Gippal, Zanno, and even Kimhari- though she knew after he flung her over his head that she'd never dance with him again until he learned that human girls didn't land on all fours, like the Ronso. Still, she had to admit it was the most fun she'd truly had in years.

"Hey your Highness , aren't you a little young for that?" Gippal teased, taking a glass of a fruity mixed drink from her hands and spinning her into his arms.

"Oh, you're my father now?" But she was grinning. He was so funny sometimes! "Hi, Pops."

"You must be drunk if you mistake me for being that bald and slightly overweight. Anyway, I assure you that dancing with me will be far more entertaining."

She giggled. "Pops would kill you if he heard you call him overweight."

"Well, sometimes the truth hurts."

She giggled again as he dipped her back. "Ain't that the truth."

"Have I mentioned you look fabulous tonight?"

She snickered. "And you call me durnk- hee hee I mean drunk?"

"I've only had as much to drink as you have, shorty." Gippal dipped her again. "And I can hold my liquor better than –ahem- some."

"So I'm not a chronic alcoholic, like some."

"That's reiteration," he pointed out, feigning seriousness.

"Is it?" she asked, tilting her head.

"No clue." He grinned and spun her around. "Just thought I'd sound smart if I said it. Did I?"

"Your genius astounds me," she teased.

"I thought it might."

They were quite close by this time. Without notice, Rikku was overcome by the sensation of Gippal's mouth on hers. She sank into his warm embrace, senses reeling. Gippal certainly knew what he was doing. She doubted Zanno could even hope to compete.

That thought brought Rikku's senses crashing to the ground. She jerked back with a startled squeak.

"Rikku, I-" Gippal began, looking flustered.

"Zanno!" she squawked.

"I… huh?"

"Zanno! I invited Zanno with me and I've totally ignored him." The heavy weight of guilt pressed down in her chest.

"But-"

"Sorry Gippal. See you later!" And she dashed off.

"But Rikku!" All he saw was her retreating form and a hand that flashed a brief wave as she disappeared into the crowd. With a growl of frustration, he kicked the sand beneath his feet and stalked off sulkily.

Rikku elbowed her way through the crowd in her search for Zanno. It took nearly ten minutes, but she finally found him sitting before the huge, celebratory bonfire with his chin propped on his hand.

"There you are!" She picked here way across the sand towards him. "I've been looking everywhere for you."

"I've been sitting her for the past hour," he replied in a sulky way that was reminiscent of a certain Machine Faction Leader.

She grimaced and plopped gracelessly next to him. "Sorry," she murmured, shaking sand from her dress.

"Have fun with Gippal?" he grumbled.

"Well, yeah, surprisingly. I-" She stopped and looked at him curiously. Turning bodily towards him, she looked straight at his face.

"What?"

"Are you… are you jealous?" she asked, flabbergasted.

"What!"

"Are. You. Jealous? Though I can't understand why…" She was truly puzzled.

"Rikku, you're totally plastered."

She gave a loud, angry snort. "So I've had a few drinks and suddenly I'm incapable of knowing what I'm asking!"

"Rikku-"

"No! You know what- I don't care anymore. No, don't even try it bucko. I'm going home- to Wuwu… whatever! Goodnight!" Standing abruptly, she whirled on her heel and stalked off towards Wakka and Lulu's hut.

Men were so… "Argh!" Rikku shrieked, storming into the hut.

Lulu looked up with a start, hand poised to burp baby Vidina. "What's wrong?"

"Men! They're such buttheads!" she muttered, storming past her. "I'm going to bed. Goodnight!" The door slammed violently behind her.

Still seething, she thrashed about the guest room for a while. She didn't know why she was so mad. Zanno was just being stupid.

"He could've answered my question," she said, yanking her dress over her head and throwing it in a ball in the corner. "But nooo. He had to think it was… something inspired by booze. I mean cripes!" She wrestled into her nightshirt. In the small mirror on the wall across from her, she saw her eyes were bloodshot and strands of her hair stood on end in a halo of static electricity.

She scoffed, combing her hands through her hair hastily. Then, despite the fact that the party outdoors was still going strong, she went to bed.

''''

_"I want to do this. This madness has to end."_

_A familiar face looked at her, wrought with concern. "I'm not sure of the results. This has never been done before. This could fail…" His green eyes were bright. "You could… die."_

_"I know. I … I accept that." She smiled, though she felt it waver. "Besides, you never know until you try."_

_"I… I love you." He sounded desperate. Fearful._

_"You're a great inventor. I know it will work."_

_He sighed. "The finest weapon to our people."_

There was a sharp cry and Rikku awoke with a start. She sat up, groggy and disoriented, with an intense headache that threatened to split her head in two. It wasn't until she registered an infant's squalling that she realized she was still in Besaid.

"No one has the lungs to belt out that a scream like that like Vidina," she muttered, staggering out of bed.

"Did he wake you?" Lulu asked when she stumbled out into the main room. Vidina was whimpering fitfully.

"Nng," was her reply and she shrugged, plopping into a chair beside the woman.

"Not hung over, are you?"

She held her hand up, spacing her thumb and forefinger just centimeters apart.

Lulu chuckled, propping her baby on her hip. "I'll fix you Wakka's hangover remedy. He claims it scares the hangover out of you."

"I'm not so sure that will be safe."

"What? You don't trust me?" asked the man in question.

"Exactly."

He harrumphed. "Well, you go lie down, ya? I'll brink it to you when it's done."

She grunted and shuffled back to bed. Or so she had every intention of doing. But, riddled with a hangover or not, she was not one to keep still. Reaching over the side of the bed, she seized her knapsack and began to rifle through it. Moments later, she pulled out the strange, reconstructed sphere she discovered in her investigation. Despite every intention to take a mini vacation while attending Yuna's wedding, she couldn't stifle the driving need to know what the sphere was about. She felt she was on the verge of unlocking its mysteries but had no idea what to do to achieve that goal. It was maddening.

Absently, she ran her hand over the smooth, gray surface.

"…ikku… up… come on…."

Rikku felt as though her brain was rattling around inside her skull. Her skin felt tender, as if she had a serious sunburn. What was going on?

"Come on… don't die on me now."

"Nng… who's dying?" she asked thickly, forcing her eyes open. Standing over her was Zanno, Yuna, Tidus, Lulu, and Wakka (with Vidina). Gippal was the one causing her brain to rattle. He stopped shaking her long enough to hug her tightly.

"Ow… What's going on?" she asked as her mental fog cleared. "Why is everyone here? Come on guys, I only had a hangover."

The entire group exchanged serious glances.

"What?"

Gippal made a face. "It… wasn't just a hangover."

It was then she noticed a long cut on his face. The other's sported similar wounds. She nearly spoke again when another surprise caught her gaze. She was no longer in Wakka and Lulu's hut. She was surrounded by fragments of it.

"Gippal… what happened?" she asked, trying (and failing) to keep the panic out of her voice.

"It… well, I…" He cleared his throat awkwardly. "It seems like you transformed. Again."


End file.
